Santo Daime is not a dogmatic tradition where someone is telling you what to believe. The most important aspect of the Santo Daime work is that the doctrine is embodied within the participants of the work. The Santo Daime work is a team activity. Each participant comes together, has their own distinct role, and gathers into formation with everyone else to work as a team and accomplish the collective goal of completely embodying the doctrine of Santo Daime.
This works on many levels, from the most exoteric to esoteric.
At the most surface level, it means that everyone is placed in their correct places in the room, wearing the proper uniforms, playing maraca and singing along with the hymns. At a deeper level, it means that each fardado is focused on working together as a team and not simply coming to enter into their own process and exist as an island unto themselves in the salão. Even more deeper, it involves that the inner orientation of all fardados is . It is more valuable to sing one line of a hymn from a place of pure love, than to sing the entire hinario from a place of self self-aggrandizement and competition against the other Daimistas.
Understanding the meaning of the terms “fiscalização” and “guardianship”
“Fiscalização” is the Portuguese word used for the concept of the set of rules and standards that all fardados are required to carry out in order to ensure that the work is properly carried out.
Generally, in English speaking countries this term is translated as “guardianship” as that is the closest approximation. Throughout this document, we will continue to use that term due to its universal application in the Santo Daime world, however we must realize that this is not a simple direct translation. In Portuguese, the one carrying out the tasks of “fiscalização” is the “fiscal” (plural: “fiscais”). That is a very different word than the literal word “guardião” for guardian and has a different connotation.
The word “fiscal” most closely translates to “supervisor“, and thus “fiscalização” would be the “supervision” or “oversight” of the work and ensuring that it is properly carried out. That means that the doctrine is properly embodied
So then what is the guardian ultimately guarding? The “current”! In order to guard the current they must realize what they are guarding, and they themselves must actually be part of it, and ensure that their total orientation within the Santo Daime work is total merger into that current.
The official website of ICEFLU/Céu do Mapiá clearly states on their website that guardians are “solving problems and situations that are hampering the harmonious flow of work“.
Before we even begin to talk about the specific duties and responsibilities that certain members of the group take on in the course of carrying out the work, we must understand the universal nature of what all fardados must be embodying at all times. The Santo Daime is not a place for each person to come as an individual and do their own thing. It involves a higher realization of becoming one with the current and the self awareness that everything you do in the work is perpetuate and strengthen that current.
Misconceptions about guardianship
The greatest misconception about guardianship is that the “guardian” is the person who is assigned to stand on the sidelines and watch the work happen for a shift of a specific duration and then he returns back to the work when his shift is over and proceeds to do his own thing.
Every fardado should always be involved in some level of guardianship at all times. Guardianship is not something that starts and ends at intervals within the work and then you are free to do what you wish at other times. There is always the responsibility for each fardado of total embodiment of the doctrine within the work.
The Santo Daime work cannot properly function if all of the people in the room exist within their own bubbles and are doing their own little works each in their own chair where they are off in their head somewhere. Each person must be actively working towards merging into become a super-entity with all of the other people in the room. This is how the current is built.
If people come to the work with alterior motives and intentions to indulge in having their own individualized experiences, they are actively working against the current.
In the ideal Santo Daime work, everyone is doing the same thing at the same time. We all hit the maracas in sync at the same time. We all sing the correct notes and correct words of all the hymns at the same time. We all move in harmonious vibration with one another.
One can conceptualize higher levels of the work than they are able to embody at any given time. For example, if you do not know the hymns very well, you can realize and visualize your higher self which is able to sing at a higher level
How can someone possibly be tasked with guarding and overseeing a current which they themselves are not a part of – and possibly they themselves are not interested in letting go of their individuality and totally merge into?!?!
Understanding the current
Story about Irineu and dona percilia.
The basics of guardianship which should be embodied by all fardados at all times
Note that up to this point in the article we . Simply put, one cannot be supervising the salão or guarding a current which they themselves are not a member of! This requires a lot of work to always strive towards perfection and self improvement. To quote Mestre Irineu himself: “caprichar eternamente”.
We must bring divine ideas into active cognition. Only when someone is actively thinking the higher thoughts that paint the correct image of God in their mental conceptualizations can they properly embody it. In the same way this is exactly defines the conceptions a fardado must hold in the salão. He must be able to imagine in the room the most ideal form of the current with the people around him. Then once he conceptualizes this higher form of the room he must move his entire being towards total embodiment of that conceptualization. One where everyone is attentively participating of proper singing, maracá and instruments with all of their energy. If one is coming to the work and is not conceptualizing that they are there to bring the room into a higher state of perfection that in itself is something that must be corrected. Many people indulge in their self defined limitations.
This is also used as the justification as to why anyone should study theology. They must have the correct conceptualizations active in their mind for the realization to truly happen. In the work the side must collectively realize together.
Here are a few basic points that we must bring up into active cognition.
1. Situational awareness.
Keep your head up, eyes open, and do not drift into your own little world. Part of doing the work involves the self realization that you are one with the entire room. Only in this way can one truly “expand into the macrocosm”. Always be
Hierarchy within the salão
There is an innate hierarchy to the salão. The militaristic origins of the Daime cannot be ignored here because ultimately we must realize that we are being deployed here to carry out a mission. Just like in any organizational structure, this requries a hierarchy of leadership.
Obediência a fiscal
The following are sourced directly from ICEFLU:
1. The “COMANDANTE”, “DIRIGENTE” or “PRESIDENTE”
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2. The “COMANDANTE ALA MASCULINA” and “COMANDANTE DA ALA FEMININA”
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3. The FISCAIS DE ATENDIMENTO”
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4. Fardados
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5. Firmados and Visitors
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Understanding the current with the story of Mestre Irineu and Dona Percília
[here tell the story about how she was playing maraca out of sync with the people around her – and Mestre came up and told her she had to be exactly the same as everyone else].The salão is not a place to express any individuality or personality. In the work your duty as a fardado is to completely embody the work according to your role.
Individuals are like little droplets of a greater liquid body. Pride and self serving nature denies our realization of being able to merge back into this total source in the correct order.